Bridging the Gap
by Seraephina
Summary: Whatever he did, there was always a gap between them. And he was determined to close it. :Threeshot: :And also a gift for SylverEyes: Kid Flash/Jinx, because it's fabulous!
1. Chapter One

**Wow, it's kind of been a while! Sorry, pals and gals. I wrote this massive story for my language arts class and I swear, it completely _drained _my ability to write. It was crazy. But...I'm back...kind of...sort of...not really...  
**

**Fell in love with Kid Flash/Jinx. (Okay, okay...fell in love with _Kid Flash. _) And the lovely SylverEyes****, to whom I credit many wonderfully strange conversations to, requested a oneshot! A KF/Jinx oneshot!**

** Unfortunately, this is not a oneshot. **

**But it's even better! (Maybe.)  
**

**It's an I-don't-know-how-many-chapters-this-will-be-and-I-don't-even-know-where-it's-going fic! Wh-hoo!**

**Um. Yeah. It's completely stupid. And OOC. And not my best work _at all._ And I don't even know if there's Lord of the Rings in Jump City anyway. And I don't know what happened to Jinx's parents. And...**

**Oh, to hell with it. Just read the freaking story! (dies)**

--

It had been two years, five months, and thirteen days since he had first seen her. And there was still a gap between them.

It was exasperating. He knew her better than anyone else. He knew her favorite color (purple); her favorite food (waffles); how she fixed her hair in the mornings (wash, brush, blow dry, straighten, scrape into pigtails, drench with massive amounts of hair spray); her beloved, deceased cat's name (Lucy); and her preferred flavor of ice cream (fudge brownie). He knew about her parents, what she had done to get into the HIVE Academy, and how she had always kind of hated olives. He knew her shoe size, her music preferences and her birthday. He knew she pretended to despise roses but secretly saved all the ones he gave to her.

And yet at the same time, he knew nothing about her.

He didn't know why she hated heroes. He didn't know why she always looked at him like he was a slug she had recently squished beneath her (size five, narrow) black boots. He didn't know why she wouldn't own up to secretly being in love with Disney movies. He didn't know any of those things.

Jinx was a closed book to him.

But Kid Flash would never—_never_—stop trying to open her up.

So he kept working.

He left her roses. He sped up to her and slipped notes into her hands, notes that she never noticed until he was miles away and couldn't see her reaction. He bought her a Netflix subscription and made sure she always had a steady supply of cheesy Disney tapes. He woke her up most mornings with waffles in bed. He sent her to bed most nights with a heaping bowl of fudge brownie ice cream. He never bought olives. He made sure she had plenty of hairspray and always remembered to buy the new Evanescence albums when they came out.

They lived in the same apartment. They ate out of the same cereal box. They watched her corny Disney movies over and over until they had both memorized every lyric "Pocahontas" and "Mulan" had to offer.

And yet they were never quite at the same level: they were never in harmony. They were never quite in tune.

There was always a gap between them.

And he was determined to close it.

--

When he walked into their communal apartment, she was sitting on the couch, painting her nails and listening to some screechy rock song with too much bass.

"Hey," he said, and set the brown grocery bags on the messy kitchen table. "I bought food."

"So I noticed," she said drily, and waved her right hand around to dry it.

Kid Flash ignored the sarcasm. "Hungry?"

"Not unbearably."

He rummaged around in one of the bags. "Hmm…We have fish sticks…"

"Flash-frozen?"

"Yup."

"Ew."

"Okay…" He rummaged around a little more. "Potato chips."

"Lays?"

"Baked."

She considered them briefly. "Okay."

Kid Flash smiled a little and tossed the bag to her, gently. She caught it deftly with the unpainted hand and resumed touching up her wet nails. He fished a premade sandwich out of the second bag and sprawled out on the couch next to her.

"You're running low on hairspray," he commented, and she didn't bother to blink.

"Yeah."

"Do you need me to get some while I'm out tonight?"

"No." Jinx switched the tiny brush to her right hand and started painting her left fingernails.

He shrugged. "I think there's a _Lord of the Rings_ marathon on." He would do anything to draw her out of her shell—even suffer through nine consecutive hours of hobbits with hairy feet, talking trees and computer-generated, pointed ears.

Jinx's eyes flickered with interest for the first time. "When does it start?"

He flicked on the TV and checked the digital clock. "Um, now."

She tried to take the remote from him, but he lifted it out of her reach and muted the TV. "I get to ask a question first," he warned, and she glared at him.

"Give me the freaking remote."

Kid Flash smiled and waved it tauntingly in front of her nose. "One question. Then you can have your fill of hairy toes and possessed rings."

Jinx debated it for a moment—Gandalf was already pulling Pippin and Merry off to scrub dishes for setting off his fireworks—and then slouched back onto the couch, defeated. "Fine," she muttered, and Kid Flash grinned.

It was a game they played. Every night, he got to ask her a question—something about her life. She had to answer it. He usually had to bribe her. But that was okay.

And tonight…tonight he wanted to know about her childhood.

"What was your favorite birthday?" he asked, and she flicked her glowing eyes to him.

"I hated all my birthdays," she said sourly, but he wasn't letting her off easy tonight.

"Ooh, it looks like Bilbo's about to pull his vanishing act. Too bad we can't hear it."

She gave him a withering glare. "What do you want to know?"

Kid Flash considered it. "Everything. The cake. The presents. The wish when you blew out the candle. How old you were. What you were wearing." He paused for a second, thinking. "How you felt."

Jinx opened her mouth, ready to protest, but then he grinned and nodded towards the TV screen. Bilbo was sneaking up to his house. The clock was ticking.

She grumpily closed her mouth and folded her arms—he wanted to tell her that she was smearing black nail polish all over her shirt, but he wanted to hear the answer too much. So he kept quiet, for once, and as he did, her eyes softened a little. "I was seven years old," she said, and for once her voice held none of its usual disdain. "I was wearing a blue dress—baby blue. It was cotton, and it had this ballerina skirt so when I spun around, it twirled, just like in the movies. My parents were still alive. I invited everyone in my grade to the party." She half-smiled. "And you know what? They all came."

Kid Flash put his sandwich down and listened. Somehow Jinx seemed softer, reliving this memory. She half-closed her eyes and her posture relaxed. A corner of her mouth lifted in the crooked smile he loved so much.

"I got the most amazing presents—toys and games and clothes and candy. The cake was strawberry with fudge ice cream. And when I blew out the candles…" Jinx drew her knees up to her chest, but her eyes were far, far away. "I felt like I could be anything I wanted," she whispered, and her voice caught on the last word.

Kid Flash stared at her, spellbound by what she had just said. When he spoke, his voice was just as soft at hers and it had a husky edge to it. "What did you wish for?" he asked quietly, leaning forward a little.

Suddenly her eyes shot open and her posture tensed again. Her eyes hardened.

"I wished that whenever there was a _Lord of the Rings_ marathon on, I'd actually be able to freaking _hear_ it," she snapped.

Kid Flash sighed, defeated. He handed her the remote and she sank back onto the couch cushions, nail polish all but forgotten. He picked up his sandwich again and bit into it—but he didn't taste a single bite.

He wanted to talk to her again like that…with all the barriers down. With all the walls torn apart. With nothing separating them.

And he vowed that he would. Someday. Someday soon.

Maybe even tomorrow.

--

**Wow. What a pathetic cliffy.**

**In my defense, I didn't really plan for Jinx to sound like such a jerk. It just...happened. And I didn't want Kid Flash to be such a...minion. I wrote this at eleven o' clock, people!**

**Wow. I'm insane.**

**Okay. Don't hate me, dudes. **

**Love ya muchly!**

**--Seraephina**

**P.S. I still have that poll going on, m'dears! The "Guess How Old Seraephina Is" poll! And it only has like 6 votes...(blinks eyes prettily)**

**P.P.S. My teachers told me I have low self-esteem. Do I have low self-esteem? (My conscience is screaming 'yes!!' at the moment...haha.)**

**Bye for real. :D**


	2. Chapter Two

**I spent so long figuring out the ending to this chapter, it was crazy. Finally came to me when I was eating a chicken sandwich. Haha. Yeah. I guess chicken is inspirational these days.**

**So, against my better instincts, I gave this a slightly darker ending than it would have had with my original plan. I kind of like this chapter, actually. It's a little overwrought and whatever...but...Whatever. Chapter 3 is already formulated a bit in my head, so that's good!**

**Also, I'm not creative enough to give these chapter titles, so they'll just be numbers. Oh well. :)**

**Yeah. Okay. I'm dead now. No energy for a lovely author's note. So…enjoy! :) **

**--**

When he burst into the apartment the next day, glowing and sweaty from the gym, Jinx immediately got that wrinkly, displeased crease above her nose. She put down her magazine and squirted him with a bottle of air freshener from the bag of groceries they never seemed to put away. "You reek," she said, disdain lacing her voice. "Go shower."

Kid Flash grinned and sat down next to her at the kitchen table. "Jeez, usually girls get turned on by a little sweat. What's up with you?" He nudged her playfully in the ribs.

Her eyes flashed dangerously. "I'm _not_ your usual girl," she hissed. Unfortunately for her, Kid Flash was in too good of a mood to be brought down by her pessimism.

"Whatever you say, babe." He stood up, stretched—which made her get the wrinkly thing above her nose again—and sped into the bathroom. He slammed the door fast enough so that her shout of, "Don't call me your 'babe'!" was muffled, and grinned.

She was just _so_ easy to provoke sometimes.

--

Jinx was still sitting at the kitchen table when he emerged from the bathroom, steam wafting out behind him. She idly flicked through a few pages and looked up, surprised, when he sat down next to her again. Her eyes widened a little before they narrowed, and her customary eye-roll was already in mid-spin. "_Please_ tell me you're going to go put some clothes on."

Kid Flash adjusted the towel around his waist and smiled. "Nope. My apartment, my rules." He paused for a second. "Y'know, they say that if you roll your eyes a lot, they'll get stuck looking at the ceiling for the rest of your life."

"That's only when you _cross_ your eyes, imbecile." Jinx started to roll her eyes again, but stopped halfway. She reddened a little and Kid Flash pretended not to notice. "Anyway, if it's your apartment, why do you let me stay in it?" she challenged, probably trying to hide her momentary slip-up.

He sighed a little and pushed a fork around the table absentmindedly. "Haven't we already been over this, Jinx? Several times?"

"You didn't answer the question."

Kid Flash felt his good mood waver a little, but smiled anyway and delicately changed the subject. "So, I've been thinking."

Jinx turned back to her magazine and flipped to a page showing 'The Hottest Hairstyles of 2008!'. "Didn't the shrink tell you to never do that again? On pain of behavioral meds and 200-dollars-a-session therapeutical bills?" Her eyes were mocking in the pale face; smile twisted into something far less sweet than the night before.

Kid Flash ignored her. "I'm tired of frozen food. And you never get out of the apartment anymore." He paused, for a dramatic flair. "We're going out for dinner."

Jinx snarled—yes, actually snarled—at him. "I don't think so, bozo. We agreed that I'd stay here with you so I wouldn't get into any trouble, but _you_ can't make me do _anything _I don't want to do." Her eyes stared daggers into his. "And I don't want to go out for dinner."

He heard her stomach rumble a little with hunger as she said it, and saw the remorse in her eyes before it was quickly buried behind an angry façade. _She is so freaking stubborn sometimes_. Kid Flash gave her his best swoon-worthy, heart-thumping, melting-from-sheer-hotness-overload grin. "I already made reservations." He stood up and headed to his room, but paused and leaned on the doorframe. "Oh, and Jinx?"

She turned to look at him, and he could see she was secretly a little pleased, even as she tried to hide behind a scowl. "What?" she snapped.

"Wear something nice." He winked and headed into his bedroom, trying not to laugh as he imagined her hexing his balls off from fury.

--

Two hours later, Jinx still hadn't emerged from the bathroom. Kid Flash rapped on the peeling white door impatiently. "Jinx! We're going to be late to the restaurant!"

He heard her snorting from behind the door, and there was the distinct sound of hair being teased into submission through an overdose of hairspray. "When you're the fastest nineteen-year-old in the world? I highly doubt it." He heard her set the bottle of hair spray down.

Kid Flash checked the clock on the microwave again. "Yeah, but the reservation is for six thirty. It's, like, six twenty-nine." His eyes flickered over to the clock again. "Six twenty-nine and fourteen seconds." He tapped his fingers impatiently against the dark pant legs and straightened the tie on his neck again, bouncing a little on the soles of his feet.

There was a muffled sigh.

The door opened.

And Kid Flash forgot everything he was about to say and do because…well, because Jinx was _gorgeous._

She stood there in the doorway to the bathroom, looking just a little snippy, but the corner of her mouth was curling upwards and he knew she was trying not to laugh. Her face alone looked really pretty—her eyes were big and dark, like a fawn's, and there was something really shiny on her lips. It smelled amazing. Fruity. Like raspberries.

Then his eyes drifted downwards from her face, and all thoughts screeched to a stop.

She was wearing a floor-skimming black dress with geometric patterns cut out of it, and the flashes of white skin against silky black fabric made his hormonal teenage mind reel. It hugged her curves as if she had been born wearing it and was possibly the most spectacular dress he had ever seen. It was incredible. It was gorgeous. And it would probably break a lot of men's hearts when they went out together.

Kid Flash struggled to re-boot his brain. "You look…fantastic."

Jinx gave him that crooked smile he liked so much. "And you don't look _completely_ repulsive," she shot back, with just a trace of smugness in her voice. He had to laugh. He was wearing his father's old tuxedo and a deep blue tie.

"I'm wearing a thirty-year-old tux. Your dress looks like it just flew off the runway, babe."

Jinx somehow ignored the 'babe' comment and stepped forward to fix his tie. Her face was barely a few inches away from his as she fussed with the silky material. "Vintage. Even better." They stood there for a couple seconds, and Kid Flash vaguely noticed his heart beating a little faster than normal.

"Um…Flash?"

"Yeah?" _Wally, _he thought silently to himself. _She's supposed to call me Wally._

"It's six thirty-one."

He looked at the clock on the microwave again. _Crap. Late._ "Your chariot awaits, my lady," he said grandly, and scooped her up in his arms. Jinx barely had time to protest before they were rocketing through Jump City, completely avoiding rush hour. Kid Flash dug in his heels when they reached the restaurant and let a—very shaky—Jinx out of his embrace. She wobbled a little in her stiletto heels (heels? How had he not noticed her wearing heels?) and he caught her elbow.

"Nine and a half seconds. I think I have a new personal record." Jinx felt her (completely intact) hair, an annoyed gleam in her eyes.

"You absolutely _ruined_ my hair," she huffed, but there was no venom in her voice. She was almost smiling.

Kid Flash smiled and brushed a lock of hair out of place. "I like it when it's a little messy. It's very…chic."

Jinx's eyebrow arched in suspicion, but she let him lead her into the restaurant without comment.

For almost an hour, dinner was…amazing. It wasn't disgustingly fancy, but it was nice. _Really_ nice. Kid Flash stuffed himself with pasta and oysters and Jinx nibbled on some kind of really classy fish. The (admittedly, very pretty) waitress tried to flirt with him the entire meal; he earned himself several impressed glances from Jinx when he completely ignored the girl's overly warm smiles and massive amount of hair-tosses.

They talked easily, words flowing like water. Kid Flash felt smiles on his face at the most random moments, feeling ridiculously happy that she was just…talking. Talking without inhibitions. He felt the walls crumbling, one by one.

So, yeah. It was nice. _Really_ nice.

But it was when they got to dessert that it all kind of fell apart.

They were both seeing how much sorbet they could eat before getting a cold headache. Jinx was winning—even though she was laughing hysterically and getting more ice cream on the table than into her mouth—when Kid Flash noticed her looking at her watch. Repeatedly.

"What's the matter, babe? Got a date?" He leaned forward and checked her watch. Eight forty-seven.

She put her spoon down and glared at him, all traces of laughter suddenly gone. "I'm already on one," she spat. "With you."

Kid Flash ignored the rapid mood swing, as usual. "Then why are you checking your watch so much?" He wouldn't have been curious, except for the fact that she was avoiding his eyes and had turned a little pale. _What is she trying to hide?_ "Jinx?"

She pushed her bowl of blueberry sorbet away. "I'm done. Can we just go?"

Kid Flash felt the vibrations of her tapping her foot against the floor, a nervous tick she'd always been embarrassed about. He caught her hand and pressed it between his. "Jinx, what's wrong?" A trickle of worry twisted in his stomach, icy-cold and foreboding. "Is everything okay?"

She scooted her chair back abruptly. "I have to go," she snapped, and darted out of the restaurant.

"Jinx!" Kid Flash felt his heart speed up a little. He slapped a few twenties down on the table and sprinted out of the building, completely ignoring the flirtatious waitress winking at him as he passed her.

Outside, the cool night air slapped him in the face, heavy with salt. Kid Flash whirled around, trying to find Jinx's black dress in the darkness.

She was leaning up against a wall about a hundred meters away from him. And even though he was the fastest teenager in the entire world, he walked towards her slowly, almost afraid of what he would see.

_Afraid of what? _his brain taunted him.

_Shut up,_ his heart screamed.

When he was close enough to see her cat-like pupils, he stopped and waited for her to speak. They stood there, frozen into stillness, hearts beating wildly for no reason at all. Kid Flash felt the seconds ticking away in his inner alarm system, felt time blurring into endless, silent minutes.

Eventually Jinx stirred, her voice no more than a whisper. "Every night at eight forty-five, we'd always go out. The Hive Five. And me." She closed her eyes and crossed her arms, protecting herself from whatever memories were invading her mind. "Sometimes it would be a jewelry store. Or maybe a museum, or maybe just a really nice restaurant somewhere. We'd plan…and we'd go…and we'd steal. Anything. Everything. And I'd always be the one who stole the most."

Kid Flash felt the blood rushing through his ears, shockingly loud in the silence. But Jinx kept talking, talking with all the barriers down and no reservations…and he was entranced.

"We could never go out in public, because of course the Teen Titans—" her voice held only a small trace of disdain "—would come and fling us in jail. Not like we didn't end up there a lot anyway, but still. We could never go out to eat pizza like they do. Or just…walk. The only time we were free was at night. When we were stealing."

Jinx took a deep, shuddering breath. "But you and I...we were sitting in that restaurant. Just…sitting. Eating and talking and laughing, like we belonged there. And no one was giving us weird looks or calling the cops or screaming at us or _anything._ People were nice." He noticed her fingers digging into her arm, black nail polish still smeared from last night.

Kid Flash waited for her, but she didn't say anything else. Finally he cleared his throat, trying to be gentle. "Jinx…That's what it's like. To be a hero. People _are_ nice, because you help them."

Her eyes flew open, and they were sparking with anger and confusion. "It didn't feel right," she hissed. "People were nice, and all I kept expecting was for them to start screaming at me again." The anger faded and she slumped against the wall, looking very fragile. "I don't fit in here, Wally. I just…don't."

Kid Flash looked at her broken, defiant stance: feet splayed, ready to bolt at a moment's notice; slumped against a wall but muscles still tense; eyes huge and wary in the pale face. Always ready to lash out. Always ready to run.

His heart was breaking. He longed to reach out and comfort her, stroke her arm or hug her or _anything._ But then he remembered the Flash's words: That sometimes there were some wild things you're never supposed to touch.

A question burned his tongue, and he stepped back a little, trying not to accidentally brush her arm with his. "Do you want to go back?" he asked, voice husky to his own ears. "Back to the Hive Five?"

Jinx closed her eyes again and slid down the wall until she was sitting with her forehead pressed against her knees. "I don't know. I just don't know."

He sat down next to her. And when the tears started sliding down her face, he held her wordlessly, feeling her tears soaking through the suit jacket. After an eternity of whispering soothing, meaningless words to her, she regained her pride and slid farther away from him, eyes staring blankly into the darkness.

Finally she spoke again. "You don't really understand, do you. What if feels like. To be a criminal." They weren't questions.

Kid Flash wanted to hold her again, even if she was crying, but he wrapped his arms around his knees instead. "No," he said simply. "I don't."

There was silence for a few seconds. "Do you want me to show you?"

More silence. And then, going against every ounce of sense he had and every lesson he'd been taught and every vow he'd sworn and every life he'd saved…

"Yes."

--

**Ooh, drama!**

**I'll probably post the answer to the "Guess How Old Seraephina Is!" poll at the end of this story. Which will be...um...**

**I have no idea. xD**

**So if you haven't voted, then...VOTE.**

**Buahah. :D**


	3. Chapter Three

It was three hours later—three hours filled with a strange rush of adrenaline, an odd sense of loss, and the most stomach-churning feeling of self-hatred that Kid Flash had ever known.

Because as he looked back at what they had done—what they had _stolen_— he couldn't breathe.

They had broken into a museum. The biggest museum in Jump City. They had smashed the alarms and ripped out wires, leaving colorful ropes of plastic cable hanging out of the cracked boxes. They had knocked the security guards unconscious and flung them carelessly into a bathroom on the third floor. They had shattered the glass cases that had once held antiques and valuable replicas: most were empty now. Almost all of the artwork was stripped from the walls, even though they hadn't bothered to take much of it. Priceless canvases lay scattered around the room as if they were crumpled flyers on the street, and if an art enthusiast had been able to see the ancient paint crack, they would have burst into tears.

And now he was sitting on the rooftop of a building a couple hundred yards away from the museum. Jinx was beside him, close enough so that he could feel the heat from her body, but it was too dark and he couldn't see her face.

Kid Flash heard the blood rushing through his ears, felt his heart pumping erratically. He looked down at the jumble of precious objects at their feet, and looked at a random jewel-studded cup he held in shaking hands. Everything glittered in the sparse light, and every twinkle was mocking him.

"Did we really just do that?" Revulsion twisted in his stomach, but somehow Jinx's expression was blank.

"Yup."

He was sickened.

Or maybe he was just sick: because suddenly the dark rooftop was spinning and spinning and he couldn't breathe and Jinx's worried face was blotting out the light and every nerve in his body screamed at him, screamed at him for being a coward and a cheat and a liar and a _thief._

He stumbled away from Jinx, and then he threw up. The glittering cup clattered against the metal rooftop, startlingly loud. It occurred to him as he fell to the floor, muscles shaking uncontrollably, that he was somehow throwing up what they had done. What _he_ had done.

When he had purged the thought—and all the oysters they had for dinner—he stood up and leaned against the metal railway, sucking in pollution-tainted air, waiting for his mind to clear. Jinx walked over next to him. They didn't touch. He saw her fantastic dress out of the corner of his eye, but somehow seeing something so lovely made him feel even worse. _I feel…unclean. Undeserving. Unworthy of anything beautiful._

But if all criminals felt like this, then why did they lust so badly for the beautiful things in life?

He shook the thought from his mind.

Kid Flash tried to breathe normally. "I'm guessing you never threw up after robbing a bank, right?" he asked, mostly to distract himself from the disgust lacing his mind.

So it was a surprise when Jinx stirred a little, her face still unreadable in the dark. "I always threw up." She gave a tiny, bitter laugh, and it sounded like ice breaking over water. "Every. Single. Time."

He turned to face her, and a tiny shaft of moonlight seemed to light up her eyes from within. For the second time that evening, there were tears sparkling as they trickled down her face. And yet he couldn't move to wipe them from her cheeks. He felt weighted down by what he had done, as if the evil of it was clogging his veins and filling his bones with lead.

"Does stealing things usually suck this badly?" he murmured, almost to himself. Jinx took a shaky breath, and one of her tears slipped down her chin. They both watched it fall to the ground, a hundred feet below them, twinkling innocently in the moonlight.

"Yeah." She paused. "This sucked for me too." She scrubbed at her eyes, almost angrily, but Kid Flash fought the heaviness in his body. He reached into his jacket pocket and found a crumpled handkerchief that his father must have forgotten about one night while wearing this same suit. It was a little discolored but still smelled like his father's cologne, and he used it to wipe away Jinx's tears.

"Was it supposed to?"

She sighed and slid her hands along the metal rail, the only thing that separated them from a hundred-foot fall. "Probably." There was silence for a second, and when she spoke again her voice shook. "I don't remember if it always felt this bad. I can't remember. All I can remember is…this time. And how awful it feels." She turned to him, her eyes huge and dark. "Does this mean…" Her voice was caught between hope and grief, as if she couldn't decide what she was feeling. "Does this mean we're…?"

Kid Flash finished the thought for her, and a little bit of the evil seemed to drain away. "You're not a criminal anymore, Jinx. You might have been, once, but…not anymore."

Her face looked almost haunted. "I still feel like one," she whispered. Her hands formed fists at her sides. "My hands feel dirty again. They always used to, when I stole. For a while, when we were being good, they were…they were…clean." Her voice was bitter. "But not anymore."

Kid Flash took her clenched hand and opened it, palm up. "We can still do good. That's what we're meant to do." He kicked the jumble of artifacts at their feet. "Just because we made a mistake doesn't mean we have to follow through with it."

A feather-soft breeze picked up, and the clouds drifted away from the moon. For just a second, Jinx's face was illuminated. And she looked…

…radiant.

Then a veil of clouds wafted in front of the moon, and it was dark again.

"I'm sorry," she sighed, her words carried to his ears on the softest whisper of a breeze.

Kid Flash frowned a little. "What are you sorry about?"

She turned to stare out across the night-stilled city. Her words were halting, but heavy with meaning. "I'm sorry for making you do this. I thought…I thought if you felt how amazing it was…to be in control, to just be carried along by the adrenaline…I thought maybe you'd understand. You'd understand why I was a criminal for so long—why I could justify doing so much harm to people."

He looked at her, shocked. "You don't need to justify anything, Jinx. Look at me." She did, and he stared deep into her eyes, trying to make her understand. "I. Don't. Care."

Her shoulders relaxed. Her eyes lightened. "Really?"

Kid Flash took her face in his hands, and for a second he was dazed by her silky skin. "Jinx. We _all_ make mistakes. I make a lot more mistakes than a lot of people. We just made one together. And you…" They both smiled a little. "You just made a really long one. But _it's over._ No one cares."

And Jinx looked happier than he had ever seen her.

Maybe it was because she suddenly knew that she wasn't a criminal anymore. Maybe it was because she knew where she was going in life—what she was going to do, now that she was free from her self-imposed misery. Or maybe it was because it took a mistake to realize just how much she'd changed.

And it gave him hope. Hope for his future. Hope that maybe she'd be around to shape it.

She sighed and buried her face in his chest, and he wrapped his arms loosely around her. They stayed like that for a while, just staring out at the city, watching the moon dip in and out of the clouds. And then, when all of the evil had drained away, they left.

Without really having to speak, they gathered all of the priceless crap they had stolen, shoved it into a garbage bag, and went back to the museum. Kid Flash put it all on the receptionist's desk, and stuck a Post-it note with three words scrawled across it:

_Sorry. Our mistake._

"It won't happen again," Jinx whispered as they exited the museum. Kid Flash smiled and squeezed her hand softly.

He had never felt closer to her.

And as they strolled along the darkened streets, joined hands swinging back and forth like they were playing Red Rover, he hoped that maybe the walls were gone for good.

--

It was three o' clock in the morning. They were both sitting on the couch in the apartment, watching a movie. Jinx had traded in her dress for flannel pajamas and Kid Flash wore an oversize hoodie. They had already demolished two bags of popcorn and enough Dr. Pepper to stain Jump City Bay brown.

Jinx stirred a little in his arms, her eyes leaving the glowing screen for a second. "Flash?"

"_Wally_," he corrected, but she just smiled. He paused the Lion King tape and took a swig of soda. "What is it?"

She shoved a few kernels of popcorn into her mouth, but didn't chew them for a while. "You know how you always ask me a question every night?"

Kid Flash checked her watch teasingly. "_Is_ it night? It's kind of really early morning."

She rolled her eyes, apparently unconcerned about them getting stuck looking at the ceiling. "I'm pretty sure that after two years of constant interrogation, it's my turn."

He kicked his feet up onto the coffee table, accidentally knocking over a bowl of potpourri they had put there in a vain effort to make the apartment smell less like ramen noodles and hairspray. "Okay, shoot," he said easily, too lazy to pick up the dried flower petals that were now strewn across the carpet.

She thought about it for a while, looking consideringly at Pumba's face on the paused TV screen. "Did you seriously not notice that waitress flirting with you?"

Kid Flash laughed, both startled and amused. "What kind of a question is that?" He poked her playfully and she jabbed her elbow into his ribs.

"What? I seriously want to know!" Her eyes sparkled as she laughed. Then she turned serious again.

Kid Flash leaned back onto the sofa cushions and laughed quietly. "Okay, sure. I noticed."

Jinx waited for a beat. "And?"

He shrugged and took another sip of Dr. Pepper, already guessing what she was trying to figure out. "No, Jinx. I was not in any way, shape, or form attracted to her. Happy?" He grinned at her expression over the rim of his glass. "You're getting a little predictable, babe."

She half-smiled, half-scowled, a faint glow of embarrassment on her cheeks. They watched the movie for a couple more minutes before he realized something.

"Hey, wait." He paused the movie again and turned to her. "I didn't use _my_ question for last night." Jinx grumbled under her breath and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, her pink eyes glowing softly in the darkened room.

Kid Flash wondered what he was supposed to ask her. There were no walls separating them—there was no need to draw her into a conversation. There was no need to seduce her into speaking. There was no need to see if she could feel—if she was capable of emotion—to prove to himself that she wasn't just ice.

Because now he knew she wasn't.

Finally, a half-remembered thought came to him, and he smiled, pleased that he had such a good question to use on her.

"What did you wish for? At your seventh birthday party?"

To his surprise, Jinx flushed bright red. "That is _not_ a fair question," she snapped, but he could see in her eyes she didn't believe the argument.

Kid Flash grinned, amused in the knowledge that he had struck a nerve. "You know the rules, Jinx. One question. You already asked yours. It's my turn."

She sighed and pulled a loose thread from the blanket around her shoulders. "You're going to laugh."

He grinned again. "I swear I won't, babe. I just want to know what you wished for."

Jinx closed her eyes and made an aggravated sound.

"I wished that one day Prince Charming would come galloping up on a pink unicorn and we'd go riding away into the sunset and go to a castle and then we'd live happily ever after." She buried her head underneath the covers, blushing furiously.

Kid Flash couldn't help it: he cracked up. "_That_ was your wish?" He tried to take a drink of Dr. Pepper but laughed mid-swallow and snorted it all over the floor.

Jinx removed her head from the covers and glared at him. "You said you weren't going to laugh!" He covered his mouth and tried to swallow the laughter.

"Sorry, but that's…that's just…" He trailed off as her eyes starting glowing pink. "…Interesting."

She glared at him again, but then the glower slipped away as she giggled. Just once. "It is kind of stupid, isn't it?"

Kid Flash slipped an arm around her shoulders. "A little." They were quiet for a minute or two, and then he shifted a little. "Well, I'm no Prince Charming…And it's kind of dark outside…and this is a far cry from a castle…" He grinned and nudged her. "And I don't have a unicorn." He looked at her, smiling. "But are we still eligible for the happily-ever-after part?"

He saw the gears working in her head, and hoped that maybe the walls would stay down like they had never existed.

Finally she sighed, half-smiled, and tipped her head back. "You know what? Why the hell not?"

He smiled and Jinx flicked a kernel of popcorn at him. They laughed. They finished watching the movie. And then they both somehow fell asleep on the living room couch. Together.

The walls had been broken down. The gap between them was closed. Somehow—and maybe not forever—but for now, at least…they were in harmony.

The bridge was built.

And Kid Flash knew, as they fell asleep in each other's arms, that it would last.

--

He visited Robin the next day, partly to explain about the museum, but mostly to explain about Jinx.

The Boy Wonder's opaque mask narrowed. "You mean you broke into a museum, knocked out a couple of guards, locked them in the woman's bathroom, stole a bunch of really expensive crap, took it _a hundred feet away,_ and then after waiting around for an hour or two, took it _back_?"

Kid Flash shifted guiltily. "In my defense, Jinx did the bathroom thing. I was all set to lock them in a supply closet, but—" He could feel the heat of Robin's glare, even through the mask. "Um…anyway…I just had to make sure she wasn't going to, you know…switch sides again." He stopped and tried to make Robin understand. "It was a mistake," he finished, a little lamely. "A really, really big mistake."

Robin stared at him for another few seconds, then took out a manila folder with the Jump City Police Department logo stamped on it. "The police don't know who broke into the museum. However, they charged us anyway, because we weren't there to catch the…_criminals_." Kid Flash shifted again. "We have to pay for broken display cases, smashed alarm systems, damaged paintings and hospital bills for one of the security guards, who has a concussion." Robin set the folder down and looked at Kid Flash consideringly. "Just tell me this, Wally—was it worth it?"

"It wasn't like that," Kid Flash blurted. Then he looked down. He thought back on all of the disgust he had felt. He thought about the horror that had struck him like a blow when he realized the crimes he was capable of. He remembered the fearless security guards he and Jinx had hurt, just for the price of doing their jobs right.

But then he thought about Jinx's pained, hopeful face—her expression when she realized that she wasn't a criminal anymore, and that she could do whatever she wanted. He thought about her laugh. He thought about how good it felt just to sit there with her and look at her smile. He thought about what they could do for the city—how they could be unbeatable. Together.

And then Kid Flash looked up at Robin. "Yeah. It was worth it."

Robin frowned. "But Jinx—"

"—would like to be made an honorary member of the Teen Titans," she interrupted, and both Robin and Kid Flash looked back at the doorway to Robin's room, surprised.

Jinx strolled in, wearing a small smile on her face. "Raven let me in," she said in way of explanations.

"Oh."

Jinx sat down beside Kid Flash, and he held her hand, just because he could. Robin's eyes flickered between their interlaced fingers for a few seconds, and then he half-smiled. "Well, Jinx, I'm assuming you won't be breaking into any more museums?"

She gave him her sweetest smile. "Of course not."

"And you really have switched sides, right? You're not going to be tempted to turn back?"

Jinx shook her head slowly, and Kid Flash wondered if she was remembering the rooftop the night before. "No. I'm not going back."

Robin hesitated, and then handed her a communicator. He smiled. "Welcome to the team, Jinx."

And all Kid Flash could do was grin and squeeze her hand, just a little—because now the gap was finally closed. And they really could be together.

--

**Um, I think I have some kind of fetish for dramatic rooftop scenes.**

**And cheesy Disney tapes.**

**xD**

**WAIT…WHOA! IS THIS THING ALREADY OVER? WHEN DID **_**THAT**_** HAPPEN?!**

**Crikey, that was…short. oO This whole thing was supposed to play out over, like, ten chapters. We're on…three.**

**Crap. The whole thing lasted for all of 7,000 words or whatever.**

**Well, I hope you enjoyed it anyway. :D**

**OH RIGHT.**

**Well, strangely enough, the only two people who guessed right on the poll were the two people who know me in real life! xD (Although, technically, in a PM, SylverEyes did guess right…but…whatever.)**

**So let's give a hand to XxNightfirexX and waves 2622! They were the only two people to guess my real age. Which is…(drumroll, please…)**

**THIRTEEN!! :D**

**Yes. I am thirteen years old. I turned thirteen in January. Hehe, it was very amusing, how most people guessed either fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen. I even got a nineteen! (And yet I got a twelve…that's kind of insulting, I suppose…) **

**So, anyway, I hope you enjoyed this—admittedly, short—fic! I would like to remind you again that it was a gift for SylverEyes, who is amazingly cool and has the best oneshot ideas EVER. Like this Raven/Speedy one she gave me a teaser of…It was awesome. :) You guys had all better go put her on Author Alert, because she has AMAZING stuff coming out soon. **

**And…that's it.**

**I shall be out with more stuff soon! I hope you enjoyed. Toodles!**

**--Seraephina **

**(And since I'm still a review-whore…So…Reviews are love. Haha.)**


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